The Easiest Way to Stop Rising Temperatures

27 Sep, 2016 by Dave Blount

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If we assume that temperatures really are rising, and then take a larger leap and assume that this is a problem, the solution isn’t for Big Government to use draconian levels of taxation and regulation to dramatically lower our standard of living. An easier approach would be to move the sensors away from the concrete:

A new study from [US Geological Survey] by Kevin Gallo and George Xian verifies what we’ve already learned and published on via the Surface Stations project; that concrete and asphalt (aka impervious surfaces) have increased near weather stations that are used to monitor climate. …

What is most important about this paper is that it quantifies the percentage of stations that have had increased amounts of impervious surface area getting closer to the stations. As I have long since maintained, such things act as heat sinks, which increase the night-time temperature when they release the stored energy from the sun that was absorbed during the day as infrared, warming the air near the thermometer, and thus biasing the minimum temperature upwards.

Anyone who has spent a summer in Phoenix, where temperatures often fail to fall below 90° at night, knows all about the heat sink effect.

In this study, they have observed over 32% of the [US Historical Climatology Network] stations exhibited an increase in impervious surface area of ≥20% between 2001 and 2011. When the 1000 m radius associated with each station was examined, over 52% (over 600) of the stations exhibited an increase in [impervious surface area] of ≥20% within at least 1% of the grid cells within that radius.

The government claims that it adjusts data to correct for the heat sink effect. This is an admission that the data presented to us at our own expense has been manipulated. If accurate readings advanced The Agenda, bureaucrats wouldn’t use data from climate stations that are unable to provide it.